


Grand Designs

by IreneADonovan



Series: Rush and Beer [6]
Category: X-Men (Alternate Timeline Movies)
Genre: Erik is a Father, Gen, Introspection, M/M, Road Trip, dadneto, father-son bonding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-19
Updated: 2017-06-19
Packaged: 2018-11-16 00:22:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 507
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11242392
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IreneADonovan/pseuds/IreneADonovan
Summary: Erik and Peter share a moment on the road...





	Grand Designs

**Author's Note:**

> Sunday was Father's Day in the US. My own father has been gone over a decade, and I've been in a reflective mood all day. My dad and I fought like two territorial felines for much of my life, but I always knew he had my back. He often didn't understand me, but he always supported me.
> 
> So here's a little Dadneto for Father's Day...

The drive to Philadelphia was a short one, but Peter was fidgeting the whole way. Erik supposed it must be difficult for him to stay slowed down for a car trip that he doubtless could have done on foot in a few minutes.

He was reading War and Peace at an absolutely dizzying speed. He consumed the entire novel in under an hour, then dropped it back in his backpack, looking bored.

“Why did you do it?” he asked, seemingly out of the blue.

“Do what?” Erik was pretty sure what Peter was asking, but he wasn't going to go there if Peter was really asking something else.

“All of it. The whole terrorist thing. And why you walked away from the Professor, when the two of you were clearly meant to be together.”

“Because I was young and arrogant and stupid.” No point in sugarcoating it.

“Dude, you were older than I am now.”

“And your point?”

“Still, why?”

Erik sighed. “Because I believed it was necessary. I didn't believe there could ever be peace between mutants and humans, and all I'd ever known was war and fighting and vengeance. There was just no room in me for compromise or tolerance or love. So I fought, and made speeches, and all of those idiotic grand gestures, grand schemes, grand displays of power. Saving the President was supposed to have been one of those, but I was too late.”

Peter stiffened; that last part clearly resonated on some level.

The highway rolled before him an endless ribbon of concrete and iron, and though it was cliché, it made him consider the trajectory of his life. “I left Charles because I couldn't believe in what I saw as his naïve vision of peace. And I knew he didn't believe as I did, that war was inevitable.”

Peter had gone absolutely still. “So what changed your mind?”

Erik didn't answer immediately, let the silence stretch before him. “I'm not sure that it has, not entirely. I still don't trust humanity to do the right thing. I'm just done with fighting, for now. When they make a move, I'll be ready, but I'm not taking the war to them any more.”

Now it was Peter's turn to be silent, to reflect, though it lasted only moments. “So Apocalypse?”

“Caught me when I was angry and grieving and vulnerable. All I could see was that the humans took my family, so when I was offered the opportunity to destroy them all, I took it.”

“So what made you stop?”

“I realized I was about to destroy the only family I had left. A family of choice,” he met Peter's gaze and offered him a soft smile, “and of blood.”

Peter said nothing for a moment, but his face lit like a kid in a candy store. “Thanks,” he paused and then, “Dad.”

Erik's face lit to match Peter's. You're welcome,” he paused to give his last word more weight, and his voice cracked, just a little, as he said it, “son.”

**Author's Note:**

> Comments and kudos always greedily accepted...
> 
> *goes back to work on Wisdom chapter 5*


End file.
